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Chicago area residents drying out

The storm swept through the Chicago area Thursday, packing winds over 70 mph.

The National Weather Service confirms that a tornado struck Winfield just after 3 p.m. on Thursday. The tornado was about 500 yards wide and was on the ground for about a mile and a half. The main damage is uprooted trees. The tornado is rated an EF-1. That’s the smallest on the scale used to measure tornadoes.

Saturday, a boat was needed to get down some streets in Des Plaines. But, Sunday, conditions were dry. Fortunately, the flood was not as bad as some residents expected.

Many in the Des Plaines neighborhood said the flood in 1986 and the one in 2003 were a lot worse than this week’s flooding.

State budget a bust for the suburbs

If you are looking for a job that pays well and offers nice salary increases without the expectation of competence, consider being a governor or lawmaker in Illinois.

We might not begrudge Gov. Rod Blagojevich increasing his pay to $171,000 — a nearly 12 percent increase — or lawmakers having their base pay climb to $65,353 from $57,619 — if these pay hikes were, in any comprehensible way, deserved. Perhaps a just reward for extraordinary work to put the state in a stronger position.

Two arrested after Elgin carjacking

Charges are pending Saturday for two Chicago men in connection to a carjacking in northwest suburban Elgin.

The men — approximately 18 and 23 years of age — were arrested Saturday by Elgin police after an alleged carjacking and foot chase, an Elgin Police Department release said. Their identities were not immediately available.

A blog about the Windy City, the City That Works, of Big Shoulders, Chitown, Chicagoland. In these pages find what you won’t see in the guidebooks, neighborhoods left off the maps, and things you won’t have time to visit in person. Chicago is a big city and there’s a ton of reasons why it’s number one in the USA.